IOSH
Gail Burfitt - from member to teacher
Taking personal experience with IOSH training on to wider teams
Gail's role as Health and Safety Manager for South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT), and her positive experiences rising to become a Chartered Fellow within the IOSH membership structure, led her to look for ways to deliver IOSH training to her team.
Driving safer leadership through IOSH training
When Gail joined SWASFT in September 2024, she quickly recognised that there was a skills gap relating to health and safety for supervisors, managers and team leaders. Sensing an opportunity for rapid improvement, her role allowed her to arrange for SWASFT to become an accredited centre to deliver IOSH Managing Safely.
Gail is a Chartered Fellow, our highest level of professional membership, and this makes her fully aware of the many benefits and advantages she could bring to her team through IOSH training. By developing their health and safety skills, knowledge and experience, she and the team can now go on to improve health, safety and welfare throughout the organisation.
Delivering the right training, the right way
Gail favoured delivering Managing Safely face to face, as she knew it would give her delegates the opportunity to receive the training outside of their normal working environment. She was also aware of additional learning needs from some of her colleagues, making sure she'd be able to offer any support they needed.
"A very enjoyable, fun and well-presented IOSH course. I find any kind of learning challenging because of my additional learning needs, so I cannot thank you enough. This filled me with total confidence during the training, allowing me to focus on the material you delivered."
Nicholas Tibbs
- Job role
- Vehicle Production Manager
Raising the profile of health and safety
After completing the course, Gail's delegates gave feedback praising the course content, with particular focus on how it helped them develop additional skills when managing health and safety. Both Gail and her team have already observed other teams within SWASFT viewing health and safety more proactively and positively.
"Attending this course has made me look at health and safety in a different and positive way."
Mollie Breakwell
- Job role
- HART Paramedic
"Thank you so much for your support on the course. I really enjoyed it and found the content very useful."
Richard Baker
- Job role
- Logistics Co-ordinator
- Company
- Emergency Planning Resilience and Response
Gail has since started to deliver a second round of the course, and plans to roll Managing Safely out to 200 members of staff across SWASFT over a two-year period.
She is confident that the course has contributed significantly to promoting health and safety culture within the Trust.
"Managers, supervisors and team leaders have become more proactive in their approach to health and safety. They are actively seeking out members of the health and safety team and engaging with them, which is also having a positive effect within the organisation."
Gail Burfitt CFIOSH Cert Ed
- Job role
- Health & Safety Manager
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